• The fellow who produced WATCHMEN is now interested in developing MAGE, Matt Wagner’s modern day Arthurian fantasy. Lloyd Levin, who professes to be a big fan of the material, has optioned the “Hero Discovered” portion of the tale of Kevin Matchstick and his wonder-bat. Originally published in the indie-comics-lovin’ ’80s, MAGE is one of those tried and true tales which remains a good read, and always in play for Hollywood — Zack Snyder was attached to a previous deal.

• With KICK-ASS coming out on DVD and Blu-ray this week, director Matthew Vaughan has been doing a lot of press, including hints about X-MEN: FIRST CLASS and plans for KICK-ASS 2

Kick-Ass 2: Balls to the Wall begins with Hit Girl living with her newly adoptive father, who used to be Big Daddy’s ex-partner on the police force. She has retired her guns and is no longer killing people. Meanwhile, Red Mist has hired a Russian Assassin to murder Hit Girl, while also assembling a group of super villains on-line who decide to hunt Kick-Ass down in a storyline that is similar to the one seen in The Warriors, which climaxes with a huge rumble in Times Square, where costumed heroes battle costumed villains to the death.

• Comics folks Andy Diggle and Neal Adams have a new agency, , namely WME, and THR feels it worthy of mention. Diggle’s contract with Marvel is up in March, and he hopes to pursue “creator owned” projects, we’re told.

Heidi MacDonald is the founder and editor in chief of The Beat. In the past, she worked for Disney, DC Comics, Fox and Publishers Weekly. She can be heard regularly on the More To Come Podcast. She likes coffee, cats and noble struggle.

You know, I think this could work.
My big frustration with Watchmen was that they chose to alter the plot in silly ways just for the convenience of the FX team. Mage is an FX-light, character-driven story, and could make a clean, effective superhero film very easily.